Wednesday. September 1st. VIII.

Arose, weather still rainy. I spent the morning in writing my { 308 } Journal comfortably in the house. The weather improved a little in the course of
the morning and I accepted an invitation of George’s to go as far as Neponset Hotel
with him on his road to Boston, and went. It was late before we got there and time
past as rapidly as usual while I was playing billiards. I was not so successful as
usual and, being considerably nettled, I do not know how long I should have stayed
had not the boy been obliged to go.

I returned home at about half past six o’clock without having had any dinner. The
family appeared in some surprise about me, and I was obliged to tell them that in
future they need not be astonished when I do not attend meals. They were almost all
going out when I arrived, to Mr. Whitney’s to a Quincy party and I was pressed to
go
but refused. These Quincy parties are the dullest, the most disagreable and the most
unprofitable it ever has been my lot to meet with. You do not enjoy yourself while
at them nor look back upon them with satisfaction. Mrs. Clark appears amazingly
offended with young Whitney for some cause or other and takes occasion to abuse him
most exceedingly. She is a singular woman. I am at times exceedingly in doubt
whether she has any heart or not. She is a most profound devote but I have always
thought her a complete hypocrite attempting to be pious. Her chief motive of action
is an ostentation, a wish to throw herself forward into the notice of other people
and a desire to be admired by them. She has a deep spirit of malignity and, as an
old woman, will be a most exquisitely unpleasant one. My judgment of real piety is
always fixed upon a person who says nothing of it, who does not obtrude it upon
other people and who governs her conduct by the principles which her bible lays down
for her. Who represses malignity, slander, scandal and all the little sins which are
incidental to women.

In the Evening I went and sat with my Grandfather and conversed with him as usual
upon indifferent subjects. He went to bed earlier than usual tonight and I, after
spending a little while in my Uncle’s room, an uncommon thing for me, went down to
Supper, where we had a warm argument on the subject of the conduct of the Quincy
family which did not end until late. XI:15.

Docno: ADMS-13-01-02-0003-0010-0002

Author: CFA

Date: 1824-09-02

Thursday. September 2d. VIII:15.

Arose and after breakfast as my Uncle wished to write this morning which deprives
me of the power of doing so, I took my gun and ranged the woods, with but little
success, as I only obtained one bird. { 309 } I found so little prospect
that I did not go very far, and returned soon. The remainder of the morning I
positively lazed away, doing nothing but looking over the titles of some old books
in the library of Grandfather, alias that of Quincy.1 Some of them were exceedingly amusing and, as I was in a laughing mood, I
attempted to turn them into ridicule with some little success, if I may judge from
the way it entertained him. One book I observed with a singular publisher. It ran
thus, “Printed for Thomas Cockwill at the sign of the three legs and Bible in the
Poultry!” There [are] a remarkable number of old Books in this
Library and many extremely rare and valuable. It is a matter of extreme regret to
me
that it has been so disposed of. It can not now be helped however.

In the afternoon, I wrote my Journal as usual and came within one day of making it
up to it’s regular time. It has been a very great task. My days have not been as
long as formerly but it is now principally because there is a deficiency of material
to write about. We had rain and thunder and I do not know really what I managed to
do, but I came to this determination, to take up some book to read as it was too
abominable to spend valuable time with such perfect waste. I am angry and ashamed
of
myself for my course this last three months but I can hardly perceive how I could
have done differently. My time was so taken up by my military service and by my
Journal that I could have no time to do any thing else. Indeed when I have finished
this book, I shall lay down to myself another system which I expect will be a little
more advantageous.2 Experience is the best teacher
and, as I find my time too much called upon by this, I shall endeavour as far as is
in my power to save it. In this last year it will be of peculiar importance to study
and attend to the parts of instruction which are laid down in the College course.
They are some of them of exceeding importance to me. In the Evening, I did not sit
with my grandfather as George read to him. I wrote to Tudor3 and had the usual talk after supper. XI.

1. To promote education in Quincy, JA not merely gave the town some land (see entry
for 22 May, and note, above) but, in 1822, the approximately 3,000 volumes in his
personal library. They were to “be deposited in an apartment of the building to be
hereafter erected for a Greek and Latin School or Academy,” for the establishment
of which part of the income from the lands was to be devoted (Deeds and Other Documents Relating to the Several Pieces of Land, and the
Library Presented to the Town of Quincy, by President Adams, Together with a
Catalogue of the Books, Cambridge, 1823, p. 12 and passim). As CFA opined, the books were ill-adapted to JA’s benevolent
purpose; although an Adams Academy was founded after the Civil War and survived
into the early years of this century, the books suffered loss and deterioration
through years of neglect, and were in 1893 transferred to the Boston Public
Library, where they remain as a special collection in the care of the Rare Book
Department. See Cata• { 310 } logue of the John Adams
Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917.

2. For the plan of CFA’s next extant diary (D/CFA/5), see entry for 26 Nov. 1826, below. The continuation of his present
“book” (D/CFA/4) beyond 31 Oct. 1824 has been lost, and only an “Index” of some
portions remains to be printed, beginning at 1 Nov.,
below. See the description of CFA’s MS diaries in the Introduction.